1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary electric machine such as a brushless AC generator for a vehicle, to be mounted in, for example, a vehicle such as an automobile, a bus, and a truck.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, the following brushless rotary electric machine is known. The brushless rotary electric machine includes a case including a pair of brackets, that is, a front bracket and a rear bracket arranged so as to be opposed to each other, a stator fixed to the case, a shaft having both end portions which are rotatably supported respectively by the brackets through bearings, a rotor provided to the shaft, and a cooling fan fixed to the shaft (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-97777).
Exhaust holes are formed in the front bracket of the rotary electric machine. After cooling a stator coil and a stator core, cooling air generated by the rotation of the cooling fan is exhausted through the exhaust holes.
In the rotary electric machine described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-97777, the cooling air exhausted through the exhaust holes after cooling the stator coil and the stator core is guided radially outward by the function of the cooling fan.
In the rotary electric machine described above, however, the exhaust holes of the front bracket and the cooling fan are partially opposed to each other in an axial direction. Therefore, a part of the cooling air, which is exhausted through the exhaust holes and guided in a centrifugal direction, is forced to return to the exhaust holes. Thus, exhaust efficiency is low, and hence there is a problem in that the stator coil and the stator core cannot be efficiently cooled.